Nearly 1 million people rode Greenlink buses last year, up nearly a third from four years ago. The dramatic increases in ridership on what was once a seldom-used and inconvenient transit system stands as a testament to not only a resurgence of mass transit nationally in a depressed economic time, but also to a local resurgence of a mass transit system that is making significant strides forward.

The progress that Greenlink, operated by the Greenville Transit Authority, has made over the years has been intentional and well-directed. The city and GTA recognized the need for improved public transportation in the metropolitan area. They also properly assessed the financial, geographic and cultural challenges of improving mass transit in the ultra-conservative Upstate of South Carolina. Then they began moving forward in a very deliberate way.

The progress that has been realized suggests the right decisions are being made.

The system made strides in 2007 when it secured a commitment from Greenville County to match the city’s funding of Greenlink, a recognition that the transit system serves riders across municipal boundaries in the growing metropolitan area. The city and the county each contribute $355,000 toward Greenlink. Revenue from passengers totaled $640,000 in the 2012 fiscal year.

But Greenlink still needs a deeper, stable revenue source. A master plan drafted in 2010 suggests that within 10 years the system’s operating budget be $20 million. In 2012, the budget was $4.7 million according to the most recent annual report. Growing the operating budget demands revenue. That is a discussion that needs to be had within this community.

Despite its limited resources and with help from the community, the system has done relatively well. It has established a route to Clemson University that links to Greenville via the International Center for Automotive Research. It has partnered with the Greenville Drive to operate downtown trolleys that are a popular summertime feature in the city. It has erected bus shelters along its routes that make it easier for riders to wait during inclement weather. It is working on a system that will let riders see on their smartphone when their bus is about to arrive. Imagine catching the bus after work and being able to dash out of the office and to the corner when your phone alerts you that the bus is 5 minutes away.

There is more that can be done. At its core, this still is a bus service that provides the bare minimum for what is a vibrant, cosmopolitan, urban area that transcends the artificial boundaries that separate Greenville from Mauldin, Simpsonville, Greer and the unincorporated parts of the county, not to mention Clemson and Easley and Anderson that all reside outside of Greenville County but still are very much a part of our vibrant life and economy.

The Clemson route is an example of expanding Greenlink to serve the entire region. But more cooperation is needed between Greenville and Clemson Area Transit, and the system should keep looking for ways to extend its reach into other communities in the metro area. In many ways, that leads back to the funding question.

The last piece to this puzzle is frequency of service. Right now, buses run only once an hour. The system is functional and serves its main audience, the working poor. But a truly convenient transit system needs much more frequency in order to appeal to a broad spectrum of riders that includes the working poor, commuters, students, tourists and residents taking advantage of downtown nightlife.

There continues to be a cultural aversion to publicly funded mass transit in the Upstate. That, coupled with Americans’ attachment to their cars, sometimes causes discussions about mass transit in South Carolina to be short-circuited by arguments that transit systems should be self-sufficient, without government subsidy. Those arguments ignore that virtually all mass transit systems are subsidized. More importantly, they ignore that an efficient, convenient mass transit system benefits the entire community. When the working poor can get to their jobs and to the store the economy benefits. When commuters can leave their cars at home, traffic decreases and roads are safer. When tourists have accessible transportation or those seeking recreation opportunities have a convenient way to get around town, culture flourishes.

Greenlink is a long way from serving all of those groups in a way that this vibrant metropolitan city deserves. But it deserves credit for the strides it is making toward that goal, and it deserves encouragement from this community to keep setting lofty but attainable goals.